Cool reception for new green group

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Australia's newest environment group is ruffling feathers - but
not where you would expect.

The green movement is decidedly downbeat about the weekend
launch of the Australian Environment Foundation, a group whose
registered place of business is the Institute of Public Affairs, a
right-wing think tank.

Indeed, lawyers for the Australian Conservation Foundation, the
nation's leading green group, have requested the new body stop
using the title of Australian Environment Foundation as it is
"deceptively similar" to its own. The public could be easily
confused, executive director Don Henry said.

The group's chairwoman is Jennifer Marohasy, director of the
IPA's environment unit. Other listed directors include mining and
timber industry lobbyists and a dairy farmer. The group says it has
150 members.

Mr Henry said: "We encourage open and constructive debate . . .
but people have to be transparent about who they are and what they
are trying to achieve. The IPA has variously claimed that the
Murray River is fine and doesn't need protection and that the Great
Barrier Reef is not being polluted by fertiliser run-off - despite
both federal and state governments saying to the contrary. I think
in most cases the IPA presents an anti-environment
perspective."

Dr Marohasy said she acted as the group's leader as an
individual and not part of the IPA. She said the group received no
funding from the think tank. The foundation was born out of
frustration with the "current direction of environment groups", she
said.

One of the group's main campaigns will be against environmental
education for children that it believes is "ideologically driven".
This included teaching children that forest industries were
unsustainable, said spokeswoman Kersten Gentle, who is also state
manager of Timber Communities Australia.